Brazil Archbishop Accuses Jews of Hiding Holocaust Facts

The archbishop of the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, Dadeus Grings, accused Jews of running the world’s propaganda and said that was why not everything has been revealed about the Holocaust in which, he says, more Catholics died than Jews.

“More Catholics died than Jews in the Holocaust, but that is never mentioned because Jews run the world’s propaganda,” the prelate said in an interview published Friday in the final edition of the Brazilian trade publication Press & Advertising.

Grings, born 72 years ago to a family of German origin and considered a representative of the moderate wing of the Catholic Church, also justified the Crusades against the Muslims during the Middle Ages, defended the celibacy of the clergy and condemned stem-cell research, among other controversial subjects.

The archbishop’s statement was refuted by the Jewish community of Rio Grande do Sul, whose capital is Porto Alegre, which published a harsh response to Grings on its Web site.

The missive, signed by the president of the Israeli Federation of Rio Grande do Sul, Henry Chmelnitsky, said that “this is not the first time the clergy has referred to the Holocaust in a distorted way.”

“Minimizing the Holocaust or making it relative offends the memory of millions who died in a war spawned by fanaticism and intolerance,” he said.